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How to report Hardwired fire/smoke alarms

After extensive renovations over the years, our house has 10 or more interconnected fire alarms.
Changing them for 'smarter' alarm was a huge expense, and didn't find an acceptable solution for replacing
some alarms at a time with a different brand, so after some research, hesitation and more research. decided
to interconnect the alarms I already have to HomeSeer.
First Alert/BRK offers a relay to interconnect with remote/third party auxiliary devices (Bells, etc).
I figured this might not be necessary electrically, but it's relatively inexpensive
and it's certified to work with these alarms, so it's in the clear for compliance reasons.
This is paired with a Qubino Dry-contact 1D Relay.

The nice thing about the Qubino dry-contact relay is that it can be programmed as a smoke alarm.
It's a bit over-kill but price-wise was not that much different than other options, and it's really small
so it's easier to tuck inside the junction box along with the relay, which is a bit unwieldy.
Also, it's designed and built in Europe, so I expect better quality control.

Wiring is a bit convoluted, but it makes sense once all is together. If you don't like the idea of twisting so many
cables together, consider something like IDEAL In-Sure multiport connectors (HD or Lowe's).

During wiring, I mentioned a temporary switch on Qubino I1. This is to enter Z-Wave pairing mode.
It's not needed after it's working, but it is required initially, as explained below:

Note that the BRK relay signal does not distinguish between Smoke or CO, so I went with Smoke.
Now, after setting this, re-scanning the product won't work, One has to actually EXCLUDE it and INCLUDE it again.
To EXCLUDE Qubino, set HomeSeer Z-Wave interface in Exclude mode, and on Qubino,
Toggle the switch connected to the I1 terminal 3 times within 3 seconds.

Then add it again by setting Homeseer Z-Wave into include mode
and Toggle the switch connected to the I1 terminal 3 times within 3 seconds.
Homeseer will now display a composite device with the following: Master Device, Switch Binary 1,
Smoke Sensor and Smoke Notification.
When the alarms go on, the Sensor with go on, and send a notification 'Smoke Detected Unknown Location'
Either can be used for scene triggers.

After all is done, I removed the switch from I1 and Live, and everything fitted, tightly, into the ceiling box.
(New construction), but it was tight with the large relay and all the wires.
On some connections, I used stranded wire to make it easier to tuck them inside the box.
I didn't use the actual relay on Qubino, since I didn't want to add unrelated load to the alarms circuit.

You can do the same thing with Kidde Smoke and CO detectors. Unlike First Alert they have two relays, one for smoke (it's black) and one for CO (it's blue) so from that point of view Kidde has the better system. Since this has two scene inputs one should be able to use it to do both. I need to get one of these and test it with my Kidde devices. If it works, no more batteries like my current contact sensor needs.

BTW, First Alert has a Smoke/CO detector that has Alexa built in. Since it's an OEM device it's Alexa doesn't have the ability do some functions like play music. Hopefully Amazon will change that policy soon. Price, I think it was $249.99 which puts it in the same ball park as a Nest.

I've seen that and wonder how it well it would work with the Kidde's that have the voice response as well as the sounder.

My main reason for using the direct interface approach is I believe it's more reliable. When smoke is detected I want to turn off the HVAC and whole house fans. When CO is detected I want to turn off the HVAC turn on the whole house fan. It's bad enough depending on Z-Wave but I really don't feel comfortable with a device having to detect sound, I want that hardwired connection to the detectors.

Since I'm now using a Z-NET, I'll be putting the controller in the network area. Since there is a connection to the smoke alarms in that same area I'll likely add an Automation Hat to the Rock64 and then the connection will be hardwired all the way from the smoke detectors to the controller. I'll also have the relays on the HAT to control the furnace overrides and control the whole house fan directly.

Comment

I've seen that and wonder how it well it would work with the Kidde's that have the voice response as well as the sounder.

My main reason for using the direct interface approach is I believe it's more reliable. When smoke is detected I want to turn off the HVAC and whole house fans. When CO is detected I want to turn off the HVAC turn on the whole house fan. It's bad enough depending on Z-Wave but I really don't feel comfortable with a device having to detect sound, I want that hardwired connection to the detectors.

Since I'm now using a Z-NET, I'll be putting the controller in the network area. Since there is a connection to the smoke alarms in that same area I'll likely add an Automation Hat to the Rock64 and then the connection will be hardwired all the way from the smoke detectors to the controller. I'll also have the relays on the HAT to control the furnace overrides and control the whole house fan directly.

Hardwired all the way which is just the way I like it.

I agree with the hardwired if you can do it. I imagine you could put one on the smoke detector and one on the CO and it would be two separate events, but, like you said it is a battery device and what could possibly go wrong!!

Comment

As soon as I get the AnimationHat for the Pi, and I clean a few thing up on the PollyC.py that handles Amazon Polly TTS, I'm going to start working on it. Once it's up and running I'll post everything including all of the events and scripts that makes it work just like I'm doing on PollyC.